National and international headlines

The first part of a now-viral video shows a sea lion swimming near a dock in Steveston, a seaside community on Canada’s western coast. The sound of cameras clicking can be heard in the background as onlookers marveled at its size.

The animal swims closer to the dock after grabbing a piece of food that someone threw.

It then rises from the water toward a little girl kneeling near the dock, then goes back in. The girl and others laugh.

She sits on the dock. After just one second, the sea lion jumps back, swiftly grabbing the girl by her white dress and dragging her into the water. Onlookers can be heard screaming in horror. A man immediately gets into the water to save the girl.

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner arrives to join President Donald Trump and the rest of the U.S. delegation to meet with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 20, 2017.JONATHAN ERNST | REUTERS

As chief executive of his family’s real estate empire, Jared Kushner planned two apartment projects across the street from each other in Jersey City.

Both would be luxury skyscrapers, complete with retail space and sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline. A new crosswalk would connect them, intended to link the two Kushner Cos. developments practically and visually.

But when Kushner prepared an ethics plan ahead of joining the White House as a top adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, he drew a curious distinction between the two projects. He sold his stake in one, while keeping his share of up to $5 million in the other.

Kushner, 36, who is emerging as a singularly powerful figure in the Trump White House, is keeping nearly 90 percent of his vast real estate holdings even after resigning from the family business and pledging a clear divide between his private interests and public duties.

The value of his retained real estate interests is between $132 million and $407 million and could leave him in a position to financially benefit from his family’s business.

President Donald Trump delivered a forceful address summoning the Muslim world to confront “the crisis of Islamic extremism” as he seeks to present a united front against global terrorism.

Speaking from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and home to several of the religion’s holiest sites, Trump implored dozens of Muslim nations to join the United States against the killing of innocent people in the name of religion and the failure to take a firm and united stand.

“This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects or different civilizations,” Trump said. “This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life and decent people, all in the name of religion — people that want to protect life and want to protect their religion. This is a battle between good and evil.”

Billy Bush presents the award for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series during the 41st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Beverly Hills, California June 22, 2014.DANNY MOLOSHOK | REUTERS

Former NBC host Billy Bush has spoken publicly for the first time in more than seven months about the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which President Donald Trump bragged about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women.

In an exclusive interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Bush said he regretted not changing the topic as Trump talked about grabbing women by the genitals. Instead, Bush laughed and egged him on.

“Looking back upon what was said on that bus,” Bush said, “I wish I had changed the topic. [Trump] liked TV and competition. I could’ve said, ‘Can you believe the ratings on whatever?’ But I didn’t have the strength of character to do it.”

The 2005 tape, provided to The Washington Post in October, captured audio of Trump and Bush, who hosted “Access Hollywood” at the time, riding on a bus on the way to a soap opera set and discussing Trump’s attempts to seduce women. Less than two weeks after it leaked, Bush was suspended and then fired from NBC’s Today, with a multimillion-dollar severance package and a nondisclosure agreement preventing him from talking in detail about his ouster.

Nicole Edwards said she was angry and hurt when her 14-year-old daughter brought the award home.

“I feel like it was very derogatory. I feel like it was humiliating,” she told the news station. She added, “My first thought was, I wanted to know how my child felt when she walked across that stage and got that award. I became furious.”

White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster speaks in the White House briefing room in Washington, May 16, 2017.JOSHUA ROBERTS | REUTERS

White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday did not deny that President Donald Trump discussed his motivation for firing FBI Director James Comey in an Oval Office meeting with Russian officials this month.

McMaster would not directly address details of the meeting, but he did not deny reports that Trump revealed classified intelligence information in that meeting and told the Russian officials that Comey’s firing eased “great pressure” on the White House. McMaster said only that Trump was speaking about his desire to find common ground with the Russians.

“I don’t remember exactly what the president said,” McMaster said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “The gist of the conversation was that the president feels as if he is hamstrung in his ability to work with Russia to find areas of cooperation because this has been obviously so much in the news. And that was the intention of that portion of that conversation.”

Three Mount Everest climbers died and a fourth was missing as storms and high winds closed fleeting windows of good weather that opened a chance for teams to push toward the top of the world’s tallest peak, authorities said Sunday.

Roland Yearwood, a doctor from Alabama who returned to Everest after surviving the earthquake-triggered avalanche in 2015, died not far from the summit on the Nepal side early Sunday, according to Nepal tourism officials and his trekking company.

Slovak mountaineer Vladimir Strba also died Sunday, and search operations continued for an Indian climber who was separated from his guide Saturday. And on the Tibet side of the mountain, a 54-year-old Australian climber, Francesco Enrico Marchetti, died after suffering altitude sickness, according to a report in the Himalayan Times.

This year a record number of climbers are trying to scale the world’s highest peak, with 375 foreigners now permitted, the most since 1953.

A supporter of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani holds his poster as she celebrates his victory in the presidential election, in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2017.TIMA AGENCY | REUTERS

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was re-elected to a second term by a landslide, the interior minister declared Saturday, presenting him a resounding endorsement of his plans to end Iran’s pariah status and rejoin the global economy.

With 57 percent of the vote, Rouhani defeated his hard-line rival, Ebrahim Raisi, who had the backing of the ruling clergy and allied security forces. He also won a clear mandate to push through domestic reforms and pursue talks with the West, building on the nuclear deal he negotiated with world powers.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden is the keynote speaker during commencement ceremonies at Colby College Sunday in Waterville.Amber Waterman

Former Vice President Joseph Biden heaped daunting expectations on Colby College’s graduating class Sunday, but he assured them that the secret to “bending the arc of history to what we want as a nation” is actually simple: build personal relationships and maintain your dignity.

Biden’s words, many of them delivered off the cuff, thundered across the college’s Mayflower Hill under pristine blue skies and before hundreds of people who came to support the Waterville institution’s 480 newest graduates.

Residents on Saturday resoundingly passed a measure that will ban all retail recreational marijuana operations in town, and sent a newcomer and a veteran to the Board of Selectmen.

Question 1 on that special warrant asked voters if they favored prohibiting marijuana retail operations in town, which passed by a vote of 1733 to 619. This means that even after the state has promulgated regulations on retail sales sometime next year, no one will be able to operate such a facility in York.

“I don’t think that’s what York stands for,” Elliott Gear said. “If people want to go to other towns, that’s fine. But not in York. We’re a tourist town, too. I just don’t think it belongs here.”

Northbound traffic at the Maine Turnpike toll plaza in West Gardiner.BDN file

Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to eliminate the Maine Turnpike Authority is another demonstration that he is as aggressive as anyone when it comes to cutting government-imposed fees, no matter how small.

LePage has opposed, vetoed and legislated against everything from tax increases to unfunded mandates on the executive branch to pennies more on electricity bills. Now he has his sights set on the Maine Turnpike toll plazas in West Gardiner, where the toll is $1, and New Gloucester, where the toll is $1.75 or $2.25, depending on which direction you’re traveling.

“He does not believe it is right for Maine citizens and businesses to have to pay tolls just due to the fact they live in a certain part of the state where many other Maine citizens do not have to,” wrote Adrienne Bennett, LePage’s spokeswoman, in an email response to questions. “As you know, the governor has a history of opposing taxes and fees where they are unnecessary.”

But “unnecessary” means different things to different people and opposition to LePage’s proposal, which was just unveiled this week, is already mounting.

“While it is under review, we really have to wait for that decision,” Talbot said Friday. “What we don’t want to do is commit taxpayers’ money to signage or any type of project without knowing that it [the monument] is in place and that everyone is on board with it.”

Living and events

On a recent sunny May day, Alfie Wakeman bent down between two small mounds of grass to scoop up a tiny ball of white fur that bleated pathetically.

He brought the newborn close to his chest, carried it past the crumbling stone-and-brick foundations of a homestead burned to the ground decades ago, and climbed the steep stairs of a 180-year-old lighthouse that is the only structure still standing on Little Nash Island.

“She’s going to need some help,” Wakeman told his 15-year-old daughter, Evie, who had lowered her binoculars and went down to meet her father. From the top of the lighthouse, Evie had been keeping watch over a flock of 22 adult sheep that call Little Nash home, counting about a dozen lambs that had been born into the flock in the first weeks of May. Most of the newcomers kept close to their mothers’ hips, but the one Alfie picked up had been alone.

“She’s so tiny,” Evie said, taking the day-old lamb from her father. She carried it toward the shore, where the Wakemans’ skiff waited on top of seaweed-draped rocks. Her father did one more quick sweep of the island to ensure he hadn’t missed any other ailing newborns.

The lamb had been born small and weak, and was abandoned by its mother, who was grazing somewhere amid the rest of the flock on the other side of the island. Now, it’s up to the Wakemans to nurse it back to health.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, continued their honeymoon in Maine on Saturday, after an anniversary dinner at the Fiddlehead Restaurant in downtown Bangor. According to several posts on Saturday on Zuckerberg’s public Facebook page, the couple hiked around Katahdin and on the Appalachian Trail for part of the day Saturday. Chan even got a cool new hat.

Three hundred years ago, the pirate ship Whydah, sank in a storm off Cape Cod laden with bounty from more than 50 captured ships.

On May 26, the classical age of piracy comes to life in Portland when the Portland Science Center at 68 Commercial St., Maine Wharf, welcomes “Real Pirates: An Exhibition from National Geographic.” Tickets for the general public go on sale April 26, at portlandsciencecenter.com.

The 7,000-square-foot interactive exhibition showcases more than 150 artifacts, including everyday objects, personal items, and treasures, from the first fully authenticated pirate ship ever to be discovered in U.S. waters.

Exhibitions International, a leading producer of touring exhibitions, presents “Real Pirates,” with organizational expertise from the National Geographic Society.

Every Tuesday in June from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. the Abbe Museum at Sieur de Monts is hosting an archaeologist-led program where you can learn about Wabanaki material culture and the archaeological record in Maine.

This is a hands-on activity where you can touch artifacts and replicas while learning about Wabanaki cultural adaptations over the past 12,000 years.

Join us for a day of service at Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery and help restore the shore and protect the waters of Alamoosook Lake. Volunteers will gather 9 a.m. to noon June 10 at the hatchery to plant native shrubs, improve beach access, and place interpretive signs along the shoreline.

After remaining largely silent on the past weekend’s violence in Virginia, Gov. Paul LePage erupted Thursday on the radio. Maine’s Republican governor echoed President Donald Trump’s reaction to the Charlottesville conflict, assigning equal blame to white supremacists and counter-protesters who showed up to oppose a rally against removing a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. […]